The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department had to serve a search warrant to a company to get access to the dashboard video of a Nashville patrol car involved in a chase that led to a Hope teen’s death.
18-year-old Xavier M. Scrogham died the night of Aug. 29th after being chased through Bartholomew County by a Nashville patrol car driven by Leonard Burch, at the time a reserve officer for the Brown County town’s police force. Burch has since resigned and Bartholomew County deputies have opened a criminal investigation into his actions that night.
According to a report from the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, Nashville authorities had immediate reservations about whether Burch was allowed to instigate a traffic stop and chase because he was off duty. But they did not pass those concerns on to Bartholomew County officials investigating the crash for several days. The concerns were only brought up on Sept. 2 when the Nashville police chief and assistant chief met with Bartholomew County investigators to request a criminal investigation, according to the sheriff’s department.
Further, when Bartholomew County authorities asked for the in-car camera recordings from Burch’s car they were told that the video was not retrievable. Nashville police had sent the camera to a company to see if the recording was corrupt or could be recovered. Bartholomew County investigators served a search warrant on the company and received copies of the video recording.
The video was released to the media Wednesday night. The date and time stamps shown on the video are incorrect, showing the chase taking place at 6:03 p.m. on May 16th, rather than around 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 29th It shows Burch starting the chase of Scrogham on U.S. 31 near Lowell Road after Scrogham speeds away from him.
The Sheriff’s Department also released the 911 call made by Burch, which starts as the chase crosses Central Avenue. He said that Scrogham’s motorcycle had just passed him going 120 mph. Burch said he was calling 911 because Nashville police are not on the same radio system as Bartholomew County dispatch.
The video shows the chase proceeding down National Road through the city of Columbus, with the officer nearly catching up to the motorcycle at 25th and National Road before Scrogham speeds away again.
Burch eventually lost sight of the motorcycle in eastern Bartholomew County near 25th Street and County Road 650E, according to police reports.
Bartholomew County Deputy Dane Duke was called to help in the search and found a motorcycle track on Sunland Road which led off into a soybean field, where Scrogham was found dead after striking a guy wire for a telephone pole. Bartholomew County deputies did not take part in the chase.
An investigation into the actions of Burch, the former Nashville reserve officer, is expected to conclude soon and will be forwarded to the Bartholomew County prosecutor for review by the middle of next week, the sheriff’s department reports.